Solar Ovens

Thursday, April 26, 2012

solar sweet & sour chicken

This sweet & sour chicken is a favorite of ours in the crockpot.  I tested it in the solar oven too!  Delicous!

1 1/2 lbs chicken (could use rabbit too)
garlic salt
seasoned salt
cornstarch
2 beaten eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup chicken broth
3-4 TBS ketchup
1 TBS soy sauce
Roll chicken in garlic salt & seasoned salt.  Roll in egg & then cornstarch.  Fry in oil.  Combine other ingredients in sauce pan & heat until sugar dissolves.  Bake in crock pot or solar oven.  Serve over rice.  Yum!!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Great earthquake prep videos


earthquake videos link

A wonderful woman I know gave this presentation.  Now that the Shake Out has gotten you thinking about earthquake prep, these are great to watch.  The title says that they're to get ready for the shake out, but there is a LOT of information here on how to prepare your family & your homes for earthquakes.  I made a list as I watched of things I need to do.  Now I just have to start getting that list done!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Today is shake out day!!

Today is Utah Shake out Day!  Don't forget to do an earthquake drill at 10:15 am.  And even if you don't live in Utah, it's a great time to think about your earthquake safety, & a drill never hurts!!   Do just 1 thing today to get better prepared!  And if you don't live where there's earthquakes, research what you could do for natural disasters where you are!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Great deals at Walgreens this week!

This photo is everything I got free at Walgreens this week (after register rewards).  The Nasal spray I made $5 on!
This was everything I bought today.  It's total retail was almost $70, but I paid $10.  All things that I can put in my food storage.  Now imagine if you do this every week, how quickly you'll start to build up a supply!!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

SUN solar oven sale with accessories!

They just started a SUN oven sale again!
•    Three stackable Sun Dry Dehydrating Racks (With one roll of
parchment paper)
•    Two Easy Stack Pots with interchangeable enamel and glass lids
•    Multi-Fuel Water Pasteurizing Indicator (WAPI)
•    Two Loaf Pans
Sun oven, with the above pans, including shipping for $275 (plus UT sales
tax if in Utah).


More info on SUN oven half way down this page:
https://sites.google.com/site/singlemompreparedness/solar-ovens

Email me at singlemomprep@gmail.com if you're interested!  Offer expires June 15, 2012.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Raising rabbits free webinar

https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/952839023
Saturday April 14, 4 pm ET.  I have the ebook raising meat rabbits from this group & it's great!

Deal on Hand sanitizers

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu2136660
Today only, may sell out fast.  30 bottles of 2 oz hand sanitizer for $15.  (plus $3 shipping).  Great way to stock up.  About the same price as at Dollar Tree, when Dollar Tree has them, but delivered to you.  Deal is under "Salt Lake City".

Lessons from the "Earthquake Lady"

I was fortunate to go to an earthquake prep class by the Utah "Earthquake Lady".  (although I was very disappointed in the low attendance!).  I came home with a list of notes & things to do.  Here's what I jotted down:


I went to an earthquake class  given by the 'earthquake lady'.  Here's some things I had noted down:
she was BIG on having whistles...she even gave everyone a handful of free whistles.  keep in your car, by your bed, on your keychain.  She said you can whistle for help a lot longer than yell, & it carries further.

Plan ahead & find the "safe spots" in each room, so you know where to run to when one starts.  Inside solid walls are best.  Get by a center wall & squat & cover your head.  But if you have pictures on the wall that aren't secured, or large unsecured entertainment centers, things like that, you need to do something to fix those.  Having those fall on your head isn't safe.  Outside window walls are not safe.  Put your back towards any glass.  Or get in a door frame & brace yourself.  Other safer places are bathrooms, closets, hallways, but always being aware of what's on the walls that will fall.  Stairs are weak.  Center of basement.

If outside, stay away from stuff.  If in a store, head under your shopping cart.  Warehouse stores with things stacked high are more dangerous.

If there's an earthquake while you're driving, you car will feel like you're driving it with a flat tire.  Try to pull over, turn car off & stay in car.  Avoid trees & wires.  Keep some walking shoes in car, if you have to abandon car you don't want to be hiking in dress shoes or flip flops.  Also keep umbrella, flashlight, whistle, neck cooler & shovel in car.  Keep water in car, but wrap in mylar blanket if necessary to prevent expansion when it freezer.

She recommended copies of your emergency documents in 72 hour kits, on a flash drive for lightness.  She keeps a food bucket by her door with a can opener than she can throw in her car if evacuating.  Keep 72 hour it by bed in case you have to go out through a window (damage to stairs).  Shoes by your bed, in case of broken glass or other things on the floor.

She really likes the rubber grip shelf liners you can get at the $ store for helping keep things on shelves.  Big shelves & items secured to the wall.  Bungies on open shelves to keep things from falling off (such as food storage shelves).  Child safety latches on cupboards to keep them from falling open.  She puts thin cardboard between all her canning jars (such as cereal boxes), & then puts them on bottom shelves.  She said having the cardboard will help prevent them breaking as easily.

Water heater earthquake straps.  Most of the time the reason you have to turn off the gas is because the water heater tips over & breaks the line.  (these cost under $20 at Lowe's).

Furniture safety straps or L brakckets for shelves.  Use on refrigerators & freezers too, floor braces at corners of washer dryer.  Fire extinguishers.  Safety hangers with clamp for heavy hanging photos.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Recording for Shake out!

http://www.shakeout.org/utah/drill/broadcast/
You can down load this to play during your Utah Shake out drill on April 17.  There are several options, including Spanish, but they ask you to download ahead of time so the server isn't overwhelmed during the drill.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Fascinating Garden idea!!

http://backtoedenfilm.com/
I just spent almost 2 hours watching this film on gardening.  I am hugely interested!  If this works as he says (& looking at his garden, it sure seems to), it is not only very easy, but solves most of the things I've been worrying about in growing my own food in a collapse situation.  It takes very little work, needs very little water, keeps out weeds well, helps with bugs & supposedly makes the food taste much better!  As you watch you can't doubt his sincerity.  I liked his optimism, & even the title of "back to eden".  Of course I saw this & about how you don't need to till, about 2 hours after I got my garden tilled!  *sigh*
If you don't want to watch the whole video at first, try the FAQ page, that has short video clips.  The "how to" page I printed to refer to.  I am intrigued, and am for sure going to try this!  I will report how it goes, but you may want to try it yourself now.  This could be lifesaving information, especially in a drought.
I spent last Saturday getting the woodchips/compost & taking it in wheelbarrow loads back to my garden & flower beds.  I also tried his method of newspaper underneath if you had plants you wanted to kill (like the grass in my flower beds).   Can't tell if it's going to work so far, but it looks great!  I put it all over the dirt aread in the back; half has been sifted for rocks, tilled, & has sprinklers.  The other half doesn't.  I'm going to plant a few things in both spots & compare how it goes.  I'll update as the summer goes along!  Sure hope this works!
An even shorter source of this info can be found here:  gardening God's way.  It's a PDF file someone compiled based on the video.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

couponchief.com review

In case you don't know yet, I love using coupons.  It has allowed me to do far more on my preparedness than I could without.  So I was interested in a site I hadn't used before called http://www.couponchief.com/.
The first thing to know is this is an online coupon site.  It's mostly not for printing coupons, although there are a few of those.  I often buy prep things online, especially if I can get a good deal.  After all, what's easier than spending 5 min ordering online & having your prep items brought right to your door?  And if you can get free shipping, even better.

When ordering online I usually do a google search for coupons for that retailer before I order.  Usually I can find a coupon code, but sometimes it takes a  while searching through various sites.  From now on I'll check couponchief first.  They have a lot of coupons listed, & what's nice is the info that tells you if the coupon is working.  It may say "submitter certifiied", meaning the person who submitted it already used it, or say something like 84% success rate.  If you've ever tried online coupon after coupon, with them not working because the site didn't have an expiration on the coupon, you'll know how useful this is.  There is also a thing to click after you use it to tell if it worked or not, to keep it accurate.

Using the codes is simple.  You click on "show & use" & it takes you directly to the company website.  The code is automatically put onto your clipboard, so in checkout you can just "paste" it into the coupon box.

Another feature of the site I'd personally never seen before was users submitting coupons.  You can register on the site, & then put coupon codes on & get paid a small percentage when anyone makes a purchase with your coupon code.  I often receive coupon codes in emails so I gave this a try.  The first link I tried to register with allowed me to enter my info, but I couldn't find a "submit" or "continue" button.  I had to try a different link on a different page.  After that submitting a coupon was easy.  It took me very little time.  Some people had submitted a lot of coupons!  I put several in for the website artscow; while they had a lot of coupons for them, I had at least 3 I'd gotten in emails recently that weren't on there.  So the coupons list doesn't have every coupon code out there.

There were a LOT of stores on there.  The list was huge, & I looked for every online store I could think of I buy from.  They were all there.  The search function for stores worked well & was simple to use.

If you haven't been using online coupons, do!  Usually you can get free shipping, 20% off, or free items.  If you're buying it anyway you may as well save.  And trying couponchief.com first is a great place to start!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Solar cooking in the winter!

I've had some people tell me solar ovens just won't work in the winter.  So I tested it.  The answer is, they do!  I put both of mine out for 20 min & then checked the temp.  The SOS was 260 degrees, & the Global was 275.  Not bad considering it was under 30 degrees outside.
Now there are some things to consider or plan for winter cooking.  Obviously you're going to get less sunny days, or sometimes only a few hours of sun.  I've been watching my backyard, & because of the angle of the sun, & my neighbors houses & trees, I only get about 4 hours of sun back there in the winter, that touches the ground.  I could get more if I start the ovens in the front yard in the morning.  So I probably can't put a frozen roast out there to cook all day like I can other times of the year.  But there are plenty of other things I can do.

I put small biscuits in the SOS.  One thing about it, if you use the "winter angle", it's space to put things is smaller, so you have to have smaller pots or trays.  The biscuits were cooked all the way through in 20 min.  A whole loaf of bread would take longer, but if you get 1 1/2 hours of sun you could probably have the bread all cooked, including pre-heating the oven.  It would take less time to "can" the bread in jars (see previous posts on this).  I would recommend doing this if you were relying on your solar oven, so that you would still have something to open on cloudy days.  But this is all easily doable & plannable!

Since I didn't have all day to cook beef stew (and I was in a beef stew mood), I put in a jar I'd already canned myself.  I put it in the Global in the black pot that comes with it.  This was only a pint jar (I was by myself that day), so there wasn't a lot of it.  It was heated through in 25 min.  Yummy!!  So I'm going to keep in mind that if I have very short periods of sun, anything I bought or canned myself can be heated in my solar oven.

I also think that things like rice, pastas, etc could be quickly cooked in short sun periods in my solar ovens.  That gives me enough options to keep us fed with some hot meals with a bit of sun.  If I filled the oven with jars of bread, I could probably with a couple hours of sun get enough bread for my son & I for a week or two.  And maybe with a longer sunny day, can some cookies as well!  mmmmm
  All without having to store any fuel!  I LOVE my solar ovens!

Email me at singlemomprep@gmail.com if you're interested in buying a solar oven!  It's my favorite prep item!